Norway’s Scatec Solar to inject $500 million in investments in Egypt

CAIRO – 17 April 2017: Norwegian solar energy provider, Scatec Solar, will invest $500 million in Egypt in October, the company’s Egypt manager Morten Langsholdt said, according to a statement from the Ministry of Investment.

Some 40 solar power plants will be set up in the upper Egyptian governorate of Aswan with a total capacity of 1,800 megawatts, Langsholdt said, adding that the project is due to be completed in 2018.

Langsholdt’s remarks were made on the sidelines of his meeting with Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr in Cairo, where they discussed means of increasing the company’s investments in Egypt.

Scatec Solar, the International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as a number of investors, seek to pump investments totaling $3 billion in Egypt, Langsholdt said.

Egypt has good resources of solar energy and wind power, and this encourages Scatec Solar to inject investments in the country’s renewable energy sector, he added.

Meanwhile, Nasr said Egypt is keen to make use of its vast resources of solar energy to generate electricity from renewable energy sources.

Egypt has drawn up a plan to increase the share of renewable energy to 22 percent of the country’s energy consumption by 2020, the minister said, stating that Egypt is on the right track for sustainable development.